Hopeful in spite of the facts
Hopeful in spite of the facts
The ways having grown up in poverty affects your brain, even when you are no longer in poverty, often feels unreal. Decisions you inherited from other people affect how you interpret things, feel things, and perceive things for the rest…
I really dislike blogging about current events. There are a number of reasons for this: One is that these posts take anywhere from 30 minutes to three hours to write, and I don’t want to invest that effort in something…
When I was in financial sales, my mentor was a man named Jerry. Jerry was a dapper man, always in a sports coat and slacks. His shoes were immaculate and shiny. He went through the carwash every time he filled…
I’m sitting at my desk, after supper, with Leonard Cohen playing on the Amazon SpyBot, and I’m wondering what in the hell to write about today. I’m tired, and not feeling it, but I believe in magic, so let’s just…
A while back I wrote a post that was almost entirely a list of things you could do to take better care of yourself, especially if you were in a helping profession. Two of the items on that list involved…
I believe it was Kierkegaard who said that life can only be understood backward, but must be lived forward. I could go look it up, but even if it wasn’t him, you know what whoever it was is getting at…
Her name was Dorothy, and she had two sisters, Louise and Wilma. I was born on her birthday, and she loved me without reservation. Her life was a tragic one, the stuff of Southern Noir. She married for love twice,…
There is a famous, but likely apocryphal story about James Joyce. The way the story goes, a friend asked how his writing was coming. Joyce, who was famous for his agonizing over the right word, replied that he was struggling,…
The other day, I was thinking about how I have this persistent feeling of being behind. Not in my work, although that is also true, but behind in life. It’s like I am at least 10 years behind everyone. I…
Once upon a time, I was considered a subject matter expert on issues surrounding homelessness. I would lecture at universities. I’ve spoken to crowds of 10,000 people, taught police departments, consulted with denominations, and had waged war with a mid-sized…